Friday, February 07, 2014

Far from over

DARUL Ta'zim and Kuala Terengganu T-Team players and officials involved
in the tunnel fracas during an FA Cup match on Feb 1 could face
disciplinary charges from the FA of Malaysia (FAM).
Although FAM's competitions committee yesterday awarded that abandoned
second round match at the Larkin Stadium to Darul Ta'zim, the matter is
far from over.

FAM general secretary Datuk Hamidin Amin said the national governing
body will leave no stone unturned in investigating the incident,
regardless of the personalities involved.
"We will not compromise on this issue even if it means that the
president of the Johor FA Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has to face the
disciplinary committee," said Hamidin at Wisma FAM in Petaling Jaya
yesterday.

"The investigation will be based on evidence and the reports from the
match officials. Any action, if required, will be announced next week
and the case forwarded to the disciplinary committee.
"We understand that police reports have been lodged but here at FAM we will follow our own procedures."

The competitions committee met yesterday for four and a half hours to
decide on the outcome of the FA Cup match which Darul Ta'zim led 2-1 at
half-time before T-Team failed to show for the second half.

It was the committee's unanimous decision to award the match to Darul
Ta'zim 3-0 in accordance with the M-League competition rule 4.12.1
relating to abandoned matches.
"The committee studied the reports presented by the match officials and
interviewed the referee, match commissioner, general coordinator and
officials from both teams," said Hamidin.
"We are satisfied that T-Team withdrew without proper reason and
accordingly, the match is awarded to Darul Ta'zim with a score of 3-0."

T-Team's reasoning for abandoning the match -- that they were concerned
for their safety after player Evaldo Goncalves and fitness trainer
Stefano Impagliazzo were allegedly punched in the face and kicked in the
groin respectively in the Larkin Stadium tunnel -- was rejected by the
committee.
"The issue of safety does not arise since the referee said the match
was safe to continue," added competitions committee chairman Datuk
Affendi Hamzah.
"It was not T-Team's decision to make. A decision to abandon a match can only be made by the referee.

"At no point did the referee say the match was unsafe to continue.
T-Team were adamant it was not safe but that reason was not strong
enough.

"In our decision, we also took into account that the atmosphere was
fine, the referee was ready to restart the match and that the home team
provided security guarantees."

No other action was taken against T-Team, who were represented by five
officials including coach Azraai Khor Abdullah and assistant coach Azlan
Johar yesterday, while assistant coach Ismail Ibrahim and Johor FA
honorary secretary represented Darul Ta'zim.

With the decision, Darul Ta'zim advance to a two-legged quarter-final meeting with Kedah on Tuesday and Feb 18.

* In yesterday's NST report headlined 'No assault, says
T-Team player', it was inadvertently reported that the incident happened
at the Pasir Gudang Stadium. The error is regretted.